Arborists frequently encounter the need to sever tree limbs from trees under circumstances in which the limbs are diseased or damaged, for example. A rope may be used to lower the limb to the ground after it is severed. A first end of the rope may be tied to the limb which is to be severed and trained over one or more overhead limbs. The remaining portion of the rope may be wrapped around the trunk of the tree one or multiple times. A second end of the rope may be gripped by the arborist. Accordingly, as the severed tree limb is lowered to the ground, the trunk and overhead limbs of the tree apply friction to the rope to slow or control the rate of descent of the severed limb and prevent the limb from crashing to the ground.
One of the drawbacks of conventional methods of lowering a severed tree limb to the ground is that of applying an appropriate magnitude of friction to the rope for the limb lowering procedure. Furthermore, proper positioning of the rope for it to be trained over the overhead limbs may be difficult.
Therefore, a friction brake which is versatile and is capable of applying friction of various magnitudes to one or multiple load-handling ropes is needed.